Getting 6 Month Old to Sleep Through the Night (Or at Least More than 2 Hours)

First of all I would say you have to do what makes you comfortable. This is what I did: When both my children were infants I did the cry it out method. hardest thing I have ever done, but after that (and still at 3 and 1 years old) I can put them in their bed and they go to sleep on their own. For the most part they sleep all night. We have the occasional bad dream or my daughter wakes up because she is teething. Good luck to you.

Hello! Babies at that age are not waking up in the night out of hunger. My son has always slept in his own bed. I don't think there's anything wrong with the family bed, I know a lot of families who do that and I think it's wonderful if it works for you. However, if no one's getting a good nights sleep you might want to try something else.

A lot of times babies wake up (actually, everyone does) and they just haven't been given the opportunity to fall back to sleep because their parents rush in right away to soothe them back to sleep. Try giving her some time to fall asleep on her own before you rush to her bedside.

Here's what I recommend... once she's in her crib, close the door (so she doesn't wake everyone up when she wakes up) and turn the monitor to the lowest volume setting. Trust me, you'll hear her even on the lowest setting. This way, you'll wake up just enough to look at the clock and listen to your baby. Sometimes my son would babble a while and then drift off to sleep. Sometimes he would cry. I would look at the clock and give him 10-15 minutes before I would go in his room. (UNLESS he was really crying hard.) 8 times out of 10 he would be asleep in 5-10 minutes. If he wasn't asleep after 10-15 minutes (depending on the type of cry) then I would go in and rock him or nurse him until he was sleepy again. This only lasted a couple of weeks at the most and he began sleeping through the night. I started doing this when he was only a couple months old.

Could she be teething? If her gums are hurting her that might be why she's waking up frequently. If so, give her baby Tylenol or Motrin and rub Orajel on her gums before bed.

Feel free to ask me if you have anymore questions this!

It sounds like your daughters naps are right. My son still naps twice a day for about 2 hours each time and he sleeps 11 hours through the night.

The No Cry Sleep Solution, is a great book that helped us alot right from the start - and there's no 'crying it out' involved. Our guy has slept all night since about 4 months - and the tips in that book are VERY helpful! It's a very fast read and you could probably get a great used copy on half.com or amazon for next to nothing.

Good luck.

My daughter is six months old. She eats rice cereal for breakfast, a vegetable for lunch, a meat for dinner and cereal again before she goes to bed. She eats bottles in between. She goes to bed between 8 and 9 o'clock and usually I have to wake her up in the morning to take my son to school. Before she ate so much solid foods she would get up constantly during the night, not always wanting to eat but just get up. Also, She takes about three naps a day. Usually though they are 45 minutes to an hour. I find that if I get all the naps in early and not let her take one after a certain hour she is so exhausted that she goes right to sleep at night. I would suggest giving her more solid foods and not letting her sleep so much during her naps. Also, it's never a good idea to let her sleep with you. which I'm sure you know but are to exhausted to care. I've been there with my five year old. Good luck!

Does your baby take a bottle? or just nurse? When my little girl, 4 in 2 days, didn't sleep through the night, we would add a little gerbers' rice into her bottle. She would sleep at least 8 hours after that. It worked for us. Maybe your baby is just a lttle more hungry now.

Go out and read the book The No Cry Sleep Solution by Elizabeth Pantely, it will definitely help you. And it sounds like if you want a good night sleep, then putting her back in her crib might be the smart thing to do. Babies are constantly changing and their growing physically and mentally. So you're training her to know and realize that you'll always be there, good, but she must learn how to go to sleep on her own and stay asleep.

Feeding is a whole other issue. Start slowly, remember the 4 day rule, check out www.wholesomebabyfood.com to find helpful suggestions and ideas to use. Start with one meal a day, usually breakfast so you can see if their is an allergic reaction. Then increase to two, usually breakfast and dinner, then go to three meals, and eventually through out the day include snacks and liquids - water or very much watered down juice. No Milk until 1 year of age. Stay true to your nighttime routine, that is key to getting them to sleep through the night. Give her time to digest her food before heading to bed. Keep breast feeding, as that is the most important form of nutrients she can receive. She's got a good nap schedule/routine in her, so keep that going for you and her. Good luck!

I just read another response, DON"T put any type of cereal in her bottle!!!! The American Academy of Pediatrics highly goes against this bit of information. You child does not need this, especially in her bottle. Keep food and feedings separate, and remember to breast feed first then feed solids.

A.

I applaud you for having a bedtime routine! However, to be more successful, try to keep it closer to 95% of the time. Also, try to get her down to 2 naps a day: an hour or less nap in the morning and no more than two hours in the afternoon. Regarding solids: try to get her to eat a little baby food at lunch and an equal amount at dinner, plus nursing. Also, cut out the night-time nursing, even if it means listening to her cry herself to sleep a couple of nights. Once on solids, and by that age, she should be sleeping through the night unless she has reflux or allergies. Finally, as soon as she stops the nighttime nursing, get her back in the crib!!! I keep a 19 month old who is still sleeping with her parents and fought me when I put her in the crib. Now she prefers the crib at my house and even goes to it herself asking for a nap when she's tired. Her parents are shocked! I had to let her cry herself to sleep a whole week before she accepted the arrangement. Remember, like us, babies are creatures of habit. Help her make new ones! Just think about it.
M. D.

My son is 3 1/2 so I don't really any remember any advice to tell you about feeding (don't remember that long ago :)) But with having her sleep in your bed - I totally understand, my husband and I did the same thing for the first year and a half. Stop it now! Seriously, it may take a while to get her used to sleeping in her own bed, it may mean some more sleepless nights to go but it will be worth it. Try getting a work about different methods on getting them to sleep. Letting them cry it out, soothing after 5 min, then 10, then 15, etc. I don't know if any of this helps, but my heart goes out to you.

If your daughter has no health issues, you are acctually underfeeding her solids. 3-6 times a day!!!
I breast fed my daughter till she was 6 mo old and she wouldn't sleep through the night until I started giving her solids. She would wake up 4 times a night and I was working full time. NOT easy! You daughter is waking up out of habbit. Mine did the same thing. Put her in HER bed and when she wakes up ignore her. She will soon realize that she is not suppose to eat/wake-up so often during the night. It took my daughter about 3 weeks to get use to it and it was hard for me to ignore her but it payed off in the end.
Don't let her sleep with you any more because that will become an issue to. It is better to start them out in their own bed but it is hard to resist temptation when you breast feed... it was really hard for me too. Keep her in her room every time she sleeps, naps, lays down for quiet time, whichever the situation always put her in her bed. She will get use to it. My daughter knows when its sleep time because I tell her to lay down in her bed, she goes there no fuss and lays down. She may not always go to sleep but atleast we get our quiet time. START NOW!!! It is a blessing in the end when you have to work hard for it in the beginning!!!
~Good Luck~

I'm not a fan of farber either but at some point you also have to show your child what is going to be ok and what isn't. (That's the attitude i took when I tried to create a sleep routine). We didn't have our daughter "cry-it-out", but there were definitely tears involved. Our doctor recommended leaving for one minute, then 2, then 3, etc. (So never really leaving her alone, but also not giving in beyond quick comforting) First, i think sleeping apart makes things easier. Second, it really helps if a non-nursing person does the night-time comforting. If they work, pick a weekend to start. Whenever I entered the room, it seemed to end in nursing. If my husband went in he often had more success. Third, I remember our daughter regressed at this point and I think lots of kids do. So long as you set you don't completely accommodate this her sleep will probably settle out quickly enough.

R. W,
I have read all of the other responses and some I agree with and some I don't so I decided to write one to you myself. First of all, stick to a schedule. I have an 8 month old who has a simular schedule. I feed him, we immediately go take a bath, then books, then nursing, then bed. Since starting him on that schedule, my life has been so much easier. It really is true what they say, babies thrive on a schedule. Remember that when it comes to feeding your baby solids at night. Also, you may want to try to introduce solids at lunch time soon. Try some oatmeal and rice cereal for lunch and two veggies for dinner. Everything I have read has said not to start meats until your baby is 8 months old. Also, unless you baby has acid reflux, they say not to put rice cereal in a bottle because it leads to overeating.
To me, it sounds like you are not necessarily a fan of co-sleeping, it is just easier for you at times. I completely understand that one since I went through a little phase myself. One thing that I read and worked really well for me was to have my husband, or your partner, go in to soothe your baby, not you. Your baby knows that you are the one who nurses her and if she sees you, she will want your milk. Also, while I did wonder about this one for a while myself, I have read that babies can smell your milk so if she is sleeping with you and wakes up a little, she might be smelling your milk and then cries to be fed. If she were in her crib, she would not see or smell you and might just go back to sleep.
Try those couple of changes and see if they help you out any. It worked wonders for my husband and me. Hope it helps you too.
Betsy
--Just some side notes for you. Babies are notoriously bad sleepers and in the same room, they will wake you up and you will wake them up. Also, please keep in mind that around 6 months, your baby will start rolling over if she is not already and that can lead to dangerous situations in your bed.

If I were you I would try to keep her up as long as possible during the day, my boys didn't take naps very often, even at that age, if they did, they didn't sleep good at night. And yes that sucks when your little one doesn't nap and you loose the afternoon break. I would try to keep her up later and wake her up earlier till she got in the habit of sleeping longer than a couple of hours. But I know that is easier said than done.
Good luck

Hi R.,

It is not my intent to waste your time, but, I wanted to tell you that if I COULD help you, I would. I, like you am clueless on this one. I was lucky. My boys slept great from the start,once they actually fell asleep that is! LOL

Good luck with the little person!

B.

I would continue to cosleep, with the awareness that some children wake more at night when cosleeping, especially if you are transitioning into it. Sometimes putting baby on one side of Daddy and not sleeping next to the baby yourself can help- this worked for me with a toddler but not with a baby. Remember she is getting to that wonderful teething age and there are lots of growth spurts around now too, both causes for night waking. As you continue to share sleep it will be easier to wake up for a feeding without having to wake up all the way. I find it helpful not to look at the clock! Just let the prolactin carry me back to sleep. Also I have heard good things about the No Cry Sleep Solution by Elizabeth Pantley.

dont mean to pry but you better get her out of your bed and in her own my best friend has a 6 year old who still sleeps with her and cut down the naps keep her up more in the day it will surely work my 4 month sleeps all night for now but he also still slleps all the time so good luck

It sounds like there could be a couple of things interrupting her sleep. My husband and I don't co-sleep 100% of the time, but when our daughter was a few months old and would wake up in the morning before we were ready, we would put her in our bed and she would go back to sleep for a few hours. Perhaps the adjustment to co-sleeping is what is causing her wake up. None of us can sleep if we do it now, so she sleeps in a crib in her own room. Co-sleeping isn't as dangerous as many people believe (the SIDS rate, which is a common argument against co-sleeping, is much higher in babies who sleep in a crib over family bed), so if that's what you want to do, go right ahead and keep adjusting.

At 6 months of age, especially since you are breastfeeding, your daughter doesn't need much in the way of solids. Eating solid food for the first year is just for experimentation and practice. If she is showing signs of hunger, it is better to fill that hunger with breast milk since it is a more complete food than any individual solid food. 6 months is the approximate age of a growth spurt, so she may be signaling your body to make more milk to accommodate that. It's very common for babies to wake in the night during a growth spurt.

It's also a prime age for teething, which could definitely be a reason she is waking up. We used Hyland's Homeopathic Teething Tablets with our daughter when her teeth came in. And we plan to continue when the rest start coming. Your daughter still may want to nurse for comfort in the night, especially if she is in pain from teething.

You could also just try ignoring the sounds she makes in the hopes that she will fall back to sleep. Babies have shorter sleep cycles than adults, so they wake more frequently. You may find that if you just leave her to move around for a few minutes, she will drift back to sleep on her own without any assistance. The only reason she would wake at night from hunger at this age is because of a growth spurt. Expect another one at around 9 and 12 months.

A.

YES you need to get her out of your bed!! Don't start a habit you don't want her having when she's 5!!! And trust me, she will want to sleep in your bed with you as she gets older. Break that habit now!!! She may sleep better and longer in her own bed too. At 6 months, she's probably going through a growth spurt and needs the extra calories. I wouldn't increase her solid food intake just yet. If you pump while at work, make an extra 8 oz bottle and feed that to her at night before she goes to bed. Then pump what would have been that feeding. I did this every night for my boys and for the most part they slept through the night (the exception was when they had a growth spurt). No matter what you may have been told by other moms, giving them extra food won't make them sleep longer, it will just put extra fat rolls on their little bodies. Stick with what you are doing, just give her a bottle of milk instead of the breast and see how she does in her own bed, not yours. They have other available methods of getting your child to sleep besides the "ferber method". There's a book called the "no-cry sleep solution" that gets high recommendations. Good luck hun.

Rachel and Kate,
Children do better with a routine. Get your little one on a schedule. This is easier to say than to do when you have an active life, demanding careers, and older siblings. At 6 months I would nurse when the baby wakes up and give the baby cereal for breakfast. At supper time I would feed the baby cereal and a jar of baby food veggie or fruit. Nurse the baby to sleep and put them in their crib at bedtime. We would put the baby in bed with us to nurse in the middle of the night. Nudge your partner when the alarm goes off to put the baby back in the crib until you get out of the shower and are ready to go. That worked for us. You will need to see what works for you.

Don't worry if they are not sleeping through the night at 6 months. None of my 4 kids consistently slept through the night until they were 2 years old. My older boys woke up frequently during the night. They were hungry all the time as babies and they are hungry all the time as young men. They were big babies that grew up to be big men--they are now 18 and 16 and are both 6 ft tall and weigh 215 and 190 pounds.

As a peds nurse, they call them a night trainer, she has trained herself to wake up and feed, and also don't make the mistake that I did, My son is 4 and is still in the bed with us. I really don't mind it, b/c he plays with my hair to go to sleep he always has and its a bond between mother and son, we set in bed now and talk and laugh, but he is getting so long he is kicking my husband all night, he was always restless through the night and I am too. if he moves I wake up still. I would maybe try and feed her cereal right before bed with some breast milk, it will make her belly more full, also maybe give her more baby food. Good Luck J.

First of all, it's rare for a 6 month old to sleep thru the night. Yes, some babies do, but most do not. As a matter of fact, most toddlers are still not sleeping thru the night.
Personally, I am all for co-sleeping. It is safer than crib sleeping when safety measures are practiced. It was the only way I got any sleep. I could just roll over and nurse and we could both fall back to sleep. It worked great for us. But that doesn't mean it will work for everybody. Rather than transition her back out of your bed, maybe try the side car arrangement. It's where you remove the front of the crib, connect it to your bed so it kinda becomes an extension of your bed. So you can nurse in bed then when baby falls asleep you can scoot her into her own bed. Maybe she will wake up less if she's not so close to you. And yes, the frequent waking may be a habit, but that is not a bad habit. It's what babies, especially breasfed babies, are supposed to do. They wake and want comfort. And nursing is the ultimate comfort. Many moms will tell you to stop that now, that it leads to spoiling. That's garbage. It's normal and it's mother nature at work. And it doesn't last forever. But again, if it's not OK with you, you may want to think about night weaning (which I don't recommend because baby can still get a lot of nourishment over night especially when they become more active during the day). There is also the "don't offer, don't refuse" approach which it seems you are already doing. Meaning you try to sooth her in other ways but then let her nurse when that doesn't work.
I would not increase her solids. There is no proof that increasing solids helps a baby sleep longer. Plus breastmilk is far more nutritious than any solid you can give her and you'll just leave less room in her tummy for the good stuff.
Sounds to me like you are doing all you can do and the best you can do. I think you are doing great with the routine, great on the solids (not too much at this young age), and not refusing to nurse. And BTW, your apprehension about the Ferber method(the cry-it-out approach)is right on! That's your natural mothering instinct telling you to be wary of this tactic. Keep listening to that instinct, mama!
This may just be a phase. She could very easily go right back to sleeping better. And keep in mind any changes you want to see happen should be gradual.

Here are some links you may find helpful:

http://www.mamasource.com/request/8567961257255108609
This is a mom who had similiar sleep problems and you may be interested in the advice she got. Check out the links I gave her, you may be interested in those too. Especially the sleep charts and studies that show how normal frequent waking and night nursing is.

This is an excellent photo demonstration on how to do the side car arrangement:
http://www.freewebs.com/sidecarcrib/index.htm

The Family Bed
This has a ton of even more, excellent links
http://www.kellymom.com/parenting/sleep/familybed.html

Will Giving Formula or Solids at night help baby to sleep longer?
http://www.kellymom.com/nutrition/solids/solids-sleep.html

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